Excellent thread. I'm looking to scale back and do some more experimenting so this will help greatly. How long are you able to get out of a bag?

Do you mean how many times can you reuse a linen bag? I just rinse mine out and then wash them in the washing machine. I have yet to wear one out. I have about 50-60 bags, so I guess I rotate the inventory well enough not to wear out the bag.

[QUOTE=wiescins;2234243]"I wouldn't recirculate the wort. Instead, to increase efficiency, I often use a small amount of the sparge water and pour it over the grains while they are sitting in my colander over the mash pot. This allows a bit of run-off before you dunk it in the sparge water. I've found it increases efficiency, especially in my all-grain bag batches."

I always recirculate the first two or three run off of my wort. It is called Vorlaufing.

I did this method for the first time on Saturday, there were a few hiccups. Mainly using too much water that didn't end up fitting all in my pot. Just added it as some wort boiled off. I didn't bother to read the entire 25 pages of this post so I just wanted to add one thing. If you are like me and are using two pots in a set one is 5gal and one is 4 gal you should mash in the 5 gallon and sparge in the 4 gallon. Then when you are sparging the inital wort from the mash can begin heating.

Even with overfilling my fermenter by about .25gallons I was able to overshoot the target OG of 1.068 by 1.074. Okay not a big deal, but I thought for sure the first go around my efficiency would be subpar. Wish I had jumped into PM prior to the summer to allow me to save some money on wheat extract.

There was an alternative method with Sach A and Sach B which I didn't want to bother with.

Thanks in advance for your help.

60 mins at 151F/80C sounds like a good conversion "rest". In this case they are the same thing. Mashing is a process of several steps and the Sach rest is one of those steps.
I would be sure to stir the mash a few times to break up the proteins and to get the grains coated with hot liquor. Don't stir overly aggressive, just mix in and stir gently. 150-152F should give you a dryer tasting Alt.

I think that the recipe may be calling for a multi-step infusion technique where you can use two different infusions. I have only done this ONCE and decided it was too much trouble for me just to make beer.
I don't use minutes for my sparge. I usually sparge until the grain output is somewhat clear. Remember that if you have too much water (low SG), you can use reduction (boiling) to get the SG back to your target value.

For the steps posted by the OP how would you determine you have conversion? I have never done any grain brewing yet, and when I saw this thread I thought it would be a good step in that direction. I am just curious as to how you know you have conversion? I have watched a video that showed a iodine test to determine conversion, I was wondering if there was any other way. And the steps said to mash for 30-60 mins, does it really matter where you stop between 30-60 mins?

For the steps posted by the OP how would you determine you have conversion? I have never done any grain brewing yet, and when I saw this thread I thought it would be a good step in that direction. I am just curious as to how you know you have conversion? I have watched a video that showed a iodine test to determine conversion, I was wondering if there was any other way. And the steps said to mash for 30-60 mins, does it really matter where you stop between 30-60 mins?

The time that you have conversion rest does make quite a difference in how much the wort is converted into fermentables. As a rule of thumb, I usually mash no less than 50 minutes. I do think that it would depend on your malt type and quality. Pale 2-row malt as a base is pretty standard and is what I use 90% of the time. Sometimes I use Maris for English and Scottish and I also use some German Pils malts.

As a rule of thumb, I would just stick with the 50-60 minute range and try to keep that mash temperature to your optimum range. For a beginner, I would try to stay at 153F/67C because that temp is right in the middle and would produce a good beer for most styles.

It is not the only site, but it is the site I used when I started brewing. I also think that most experienced home-brewers would tell you to RELAX about this and don't worry too much. Yes, you want to do your best, but beer is very forgiving and it takes quite an effort to screw it up.